Candle magic is a tried and true practice within many branches of witchcraft. Few things are as beautiful and evocative as a flame drawing our prayers up to the Heavens!
What goes into a successful candle spell, you might wonder?
Here are 5 tips to get you started!
1) Know what magic can and can’t do.
Magic works in subtle ways, and is best used to gently nudge a situation in our favor. If we want to increase our prosperity, it is better to enchant for opportunities to find/earn/win money, rather than enchant for the winning lottery ticket. Magic amplifies probabilities, but the probability has to be within a reasonable ratio at the start. Plus, when we frame our desire in a way that allows for the money to come from a variety of directions, we increase our possibilities.
2) Keep to one focus.
It is good to be as clear with your focus as possible, and to stick with one focus per candle. You will be crafting each candle with a specific theme and energy pattern in mind, and if you infuse it with too many messages, they are likely to cancel each other out and be ineffective. It is best to create one candle for peaceful calm, and another for prosperity. Each candle should evoke a specific quality, and only that quality.
3) Consider color.
Choosing the color of your candle is always a good place to start. Color establishes an underlying emotional tone that sets the feel for the working overall. In general, green is associated with wealth, health, and fertility, red is associated with passion and energy, pink for a gentler love, blue with peace, serenity, and intuition, white for blessings, cleansing, and clarity, black for protection and banishing, and gold for luck. Check out our candle color guide for more details. While these color associations are common, and therefore a good place to start, your own emotional responses are always a better guide than the “recipes”. Remember, we are working with our own consciousness when we practice magic, so what a color evokes for you is going to be more powerful than the standard suggestion. If you have a different association with a color than what is suggested, go with that! It’s all about using your own senses to conjure your desire!
4) Engage as many of your senses as possible.
The more of your senses that can be drawn into the ambiance you are creating, the better! Carve one word or a simple phrase into your candle wax with a nail for tactile sensation, and to focus your mind on the topic. Pour in a little essential oil and crushed herbs or resins to awaken with scent, add flowers and crystal chips to evoke visual beauty. You can add glitter too, to make it feel special. (Please use biodegradable glitter! We are earth stewards after all!) You can also decorate the outside of your candle with sigils or art that brings focus to your working. The prettier and more delicious you can make your candle, the more evocative it becomes!
5) Be practical
Be sure to keep the requirements of the physical plane in mind when preparing your candle. Don’t drown your candle in oil, just add enough to coat the wax. Also, make sure any herbs or flowers you add are in very small pieces or powdered, rather than larger chunks that can catch fire and break your candle glass. (Our TRW powders are perfect for candle dressing!) When you first light your candle, let it burn for 1-2 hours, until the top layer of wax is evenly melted about a quarter inch down. This will prevent it from guttering in a pool and putting itself out. Also, be sure you keep it in a safe place, and never leave it burning when you leave the house! It is absolutely okay to put your candle out and relight it again later. Each lighting and extinguishing can be an opportunity to refocus your intention.
Now that you’ve got some guidelines, go forth and make beauty and magic, that you may ignite your desires and send your prayers up to the heavens!
Suggested products for dressing your candle:
Doc Grey Conjure Oils, for a variety of spells and situations!
Our house blended powders, perfectly ground for candle magic!